Reflections: A Mermaid's Life
by BethShadows
Summary: Mermaid. The word brings many images to mind. We each have our own ideas and theories about these creatures. But what does a Mermaid think about her own species? Does she approve of the actions of the past and present?


I'm sure you've heard it all before. The curses of immortality. It's a common theme amongst Vampires, but for Mermaids it's like that too. We now swim in a dying ocean. We didn't before. When I was young, long before I came to Mako, the oceans were peaceful. There were no big merchant ships spilling oil or ones with whirling propellers. There was no overfishing. No humans diving with cameras. We had a much safer world back then. We could swim wherever we liked.

Then the War came. The second War. The second part is largely ignored, much like the few centuries of peace between the two Wars of Mermaids and Mermen. Only those who were around then know exactly what happened. But that's not important for this. You don't need the whole history lesson just now.

Mermaids are stubborn. We hold grudges for a long time. We like to think of ourselves as kind, peaceful creatures, but we're really not. Even now, after measures have been taken to avoid human casualties because of us, they still happen. Siren songs have been banned, but they're still used. Like the video of the Mermaid from Canada luring the man in kayak. She'd be Northern Pod. A Pod which was one of the first in the Northern Hemisphere to ban that song. We Mermaids will still drown and manipulate humans for fun and we will still kill Mermen. We're taught all these things that we should know are bad, but we consider them good. And we crown ourselves for it.

We should know that we are far from good. It's a basic morality issue. Right and wrong. All those wrongs we commit are so easily seen as wrong, but we mask them as right. That's one thing humans have above us. They have more humanity and more just sense of right. Not all of course. All species have the flawed. For us however, it's largely our new members. While humans have largely advanced and learned through out the centuries and even more so in recent decades, we have not. Humans will speak out against what's wrong and they will fight, through blood and violence or words and marches. None of us do. We go along with what's said and never question it. It's how the new era works.

Now not all of us have spent our lives swimming free and happy, like we think we do. Us 'old school' Mers know the exact truth of our species and how we once lived before all the hatred was bred into the DNA of the new generations. Mermaids like Veridia have it wrong. They simply hate without cause, and that is not how it should be. It never should have ended up like this.

Although us older ones aren't exactly sin free, our sins are to humans not to our own species. We're the ones who would sink whole ships for fun. We would drown to protect our secret. And that's not even a joke. We have no fear of using the Siren Songs of old, because our Pods are likely long gone. We dabble in forbidden magicks and spells because when you don't have a Pod, you set your own rules. We should be the ones leading Pods, especially ones like Mako. Compared to others, that Pod has held onto the suffered indignities from the War, despite none one of them being around during the War. Mermaids like us can bring them past it and move into a new, new world. I want to see that happen in my lifetime. I want to be there were the last shreds of hatred are turned to nothing.

It's the stories we tell amongst ourselves that keep the heroes and villains of the world alive. Take what's been happening at Mako, with the Trident Chamber. Erik will go down as a villain and Zac as a hero. No one will talk about what turned Erik to darkness and no one will mention how Zac fell into that same darkness when the Trident was first uncovered. Then even more recently with the Water Dragon. I know for a fact that Aurora will go down as this insane Mermaid who targeted poor Nerissa for no reason. Insane Aurora attacked other Pods for no reason what so ever. While I don't know exactly why, I understand. Because I know Aurora's past. And I know that someone like Mimmi could easily turn out to be the next Aurora.

Abandonment messes up the mind. Aurora's proof of that. She was left among strangers and was welcomed by a group. One of the groups who lit the match that set it all off into the second War. She became the last one left and she became obsessed. Completing the work became all that mattered. She was determined. Like Erik. Aurora let her desire for killing the royals consume her until she became a different Mermaid who I couldn't recognise. The royals of course being those who ruled during the peace. The ones Nerissa, Mimmi and Zac are descended from. Aurora is an example, far more efficient than Erik, to show how corruption can occur within any soul.

Mermaids are corrupt. Some can't see it. Some face their mistakes and their darkness every day. While most will mock humans they don't believe humans could ever be superior to us. The humans learn about our world and how they can save it, they make the effort to explore and understand. While we stay trapped in our goldfish bowl never going on land, never learning. What good will uses of sea nettle be to us when the ocean is so polluted we become blind and we become prey to bigger more advanced predators? What good will our Moon Pools be when we get captured and experiment on?

You know what forget what I said about Humans being superior. We're each as bad as each other. But perhaps we're worse. Maybe we should go down as the true monsters of the deep.

* * *

 **Ideas in this about the War are my own, which I will explain fully in another story. Which I'll eventually get written. Maybe.**

 **-T**


End file.
